Institutions

To fully understand television crime drama, you should understand that undustry behind the programmes. Producing and broadcasting a television crime drama is a highly technical process that requires a vast array of resources and equipment. Programmes have to be written, filmed, edited and involve hundreds of people in the production process.
For this reason, broadcasting has tended to be done by large media corporations who have those resources. Let's look at some of the major television instituations and their contribution to crime drama.

Terrestrial channels

BBC
The Broadcasting Corporation provides public service broadcasting to the United Kingdom. It is the largest broadcaster in the world as is funded by a licence fee that raises about 3 billion pounds a year. Unlike commercial television, it doesn't rely on advertising revenues, but operations under the public broadcasting remit to 'educate, inform and entertain'. In terms of crime drame, the BBC has been responsible for the production of a wide range of successful shows, as well as importing a number of American crime dramas.
Recent BBC productions have included;
New Tricks, Inspector George Gently, Wallander, Waking the Dead, Sherlock, Five Days, Criminal Justice and Luther.

ITV
The ITV channels - in particular ITV1 and ITV3 - show a wide range of crime dramas, including the recently cancelled and long-running The Bill. Classic crime examples include Foyle's War, Agatha Christie's Poirot, Maigret, Miss Marple Inspector Morse and A Touch of Frost.
ITV also has an interest in new crime drama, commissioned from the UK, such as Identity, Whitechapel, DCI Banks: Aftermath, Law and Order: UK, Murderland and also those acquired abroad eg Numb3rs.
ITV also hosts the Crime Thriller Awards on ITV3, which includes the People's Detective, where ITV3 viewers vote for their favourite. In 2010, the winner was Foyle from Foyle's War.

Channel 4 and More 4
Channel 4 shows some crime dramas, few of which attract vast audiences. Some, however, have been critically acclaimed a attract niche audiences eg Without a Trace, Southland and The Closer.

Five and Five USA
Five and its sisiter channel Five USA are well known for their raft of US crime dramas. These channels were taken over by new owner, Richard Desmond is 2010. He has said that his channels will continue to give priority to this genre, although this may change in the moblie media world. Programmes include: True Justice, Justified, the CSI franchise, The Mentalist, Law and Order and Dark Blue.

USES AND GRATIFICATONS THEORY

REMEMBER THIS -

This suggests there are 4 reasons why we need media.

1- For Information
2- For Escampism / Entertainment
3- For Personal Identity
4- For Personal Relationships

Theory

AUDIENCE
Uses and Gratifications Theory
- Explain how we 'use'the media and what gratifications (pleasures) we receive.


Hypodermic Needle Theory
- Early theory that suggest we are injected with ideas that we believe to be true

NARRATIVE
Todorov - 3 parts to a narratove (equilibrium, disruption, resolution)

Propp - character types (hero, villain, princess, donor, helper etc)

Levi-straus - binary opposites - narrative feature conflicts between opposing forces (good / evil etc)

Barthes - Narratives involve ENIGMAS - questions / puzzles to be solved by the audience

Enigmas

Who is this man?

What is in the rapping?

Why is he throwing it in the lake?

Why is he in a foreign country?

Who is this man

Why is he holding them houstage

what is it time for

why are they running

why is he playing chess

why is he starign at him

why are they hugging

who on the phone and why does he have 3 phones

how can he talk english

Enigmas in Crime Drama

Roland BARTHES is a theorist who looked into narratives (storylines) One conclusion he came to was that all narratives have ENIGMAS. These are puzzles / questions which have to be solved. Typically these are questions that are raised which the audience are encouraged to think about.

Venn Diagram

Crime Drama Characters

Types of Crime Drama

http://prezi.com/aat8l7rneofi/types-of-crime-drama/?auth_key=23286a0faf0423ee46fc11da1c91baba62ba43d7

Exam Tips

Pre-realise materials - 14th May
Real Exam- 14th June

- Colour Pencils
- Fine Liner
- Ruler

Practical tasks you can get;
DVD COVER,
FRONT COVER - LISTING MAG
MAGAZINE COVER
WEBSITE HOMEPAGE
STORYBOARD
-Keeping Website Homepage in mind.

Not just writing huge essays
Adding sketches and diagrams - spider diagrams/ bullet points

Depth Knowledge of 3 crime drama's
- Mention 3 in the exam
(Luther, CSI, Sherlock)
use own independent drama's you have researched/watched yourself

Variety of each show
American - Harito - perfect cop
Fantasy - Sherlock
Gritty - Luther - anti hero.

A-A* NEED TWO THEORIES.
Uses and Grafitications - reasons why we like media
- information
- entertainment
- personal identity
- personal relationships

Propp- Hero, Villian, Princess, Donar.
Each different kind of role a character is.

Barthes - every narrative has an enigma (something to be solved)

Tudorov - all narrative follw 3 parts
1- equilibrium - normallity
2- disruption - problems
3- resolution

Levi Straus
All naratives revolve around the opposite
Good vs Evil
Good Guys vs Bad Girls
Law vs Criminal


Detailed knowledge of characters.
3 Characters with a lot of information about each
Luther - complicated character.

Good understandings of settings
Vegas - gambling, casino, american, desert.
Miami - glamarous, multi cultural.
London - rich, nice apartments

Set pieces and iconography
- Police tape
- crime scene investigation
- water on desk

Jargon - types of words the detectives use in the dramas etc

TV LISTINGS MAGAZINE - EXAM PRACTICE

CSI

Two dance partners were shot. On one of the victims, one of the bullets is still inside the victim. The investigators now examining the bodies in the lab finding different clues, what you would normally see in a crime drama. They are saying the victim was trying to protect himself. The killer then sliced his throat.
There is DNA from a cab driver of a women. Two rifle men.
The detectives are at the crime scene. Trying to work out how the killers did it.
They find evidence, bullets. They are very confused how they did it.
More evidence of the car. Montages of someone throwing their gum away - More DNA found. Detectives are entering evidence and telling their son that his Dad's dead. They thought he was robbed. He seems very suspicious so this makes the audience think its him.The chief that was suspected was shooting somewhere else, so he was telling the truth.
Back to the lab, using some time of technology to find more evidence that no way could ever happen.
Now the detectives are in the police office as they have find someones business card in a taxi. They are interviewing him. He gave a card to one of the strippers.
They think they have found there murder weapon.
Thinking a mini helicopter could have used a gun to kill. Only 1-2 hours the battery works though.
Taking chopper and remote and the man who controls it to see if it is the weapon. Using their technology to work out again. Only one officer can fly the chopper.
They find the stripper and she said she got attacked and that a taxi driver saved her life. The man who attacked her was behind her so she couldn't see them.

Settings

Luther is set in London big city, but the rough part of estates so the show will be darker and bit more twisted .This makes it feel more scary and real-alistic which means you've got reasons for deserted council estates, high rised buildings, tower blocks, alley ways and on the Thems so boats can be involved. This is all stereo-typical for London so people will connect as it seems more realistic rather then CSI.

Compared to CSI, Miami is all about holiday, sun, very glamourous, always pretty and the suns out. This is more of a fantasy compared to Luther. With CSI, they use huge houses and gorgeous people in each different episodes. You NEVER see anything bloody or dark. The neighbour streets always look perfect. This might be more hard to work out the suspect as every one is set out to be good looking people.
Criminal Minds and CSI are really alike as they have the same settings.

Sherlock is in a part of London that everyone will realise, Baker Street. As sherlock has a flat in the middle of London, you can tell he must have a lot of money even though he doesn't have a job. This bit is the posh part of London but in Sherlock, all parts of London is shown as some parts are grotty compared to others. More glamorous then Luther. By Sherlock using a  violin it shows he is upper class and he always uses taxi's to get places.

Luther As a flawed Anti-Hero.

Luther is a bit more of a dodgey cop as he didn't save a bad guy that was falling off of a high rised platform.
Also he beat up the person his wife was  having an affair with. He met with up with a suspected Murderer and has the hots for her.
 He has a aggresive temper such as when he found out his wife was cheating on him he started to break the door down.
He has also been a suspect for different murderers so no one can trust him such as the police officers he works with, They could turn their backs on him straight away.

-  There is a kind of relationship between Alice and Luther which is messed up as she is a serial killer.
- Luther uses blackmail to try and get his suspects to confess such as using child pictures from him pocket and saying to the suspect "I could make you the most hated man" which could make the suspect break, This is completely illegal.
-He breaks into Alice's flat where is also illegal.
- He will protect his personal bellongins over proffessional work.

Actually wrote this on my phone, Proud! Homework.

Criminal Minds - Children of The Dark.

Start of the episode, a family at home doing their own stuff. What a normal family life is like. Mother is on the phone. The father (Tom) has to get the door after someone knocks on it.

A man is there, saying he found a cat dead on the floor. He asks to use their telephone so they let him use the phone... He asked for a bag for the cat then he asks for a bag for the dead cat. Then another man comes in who is called his friend who was 'shook up' the young boys just saw. Then, it turns to the detectives - who have pictures of the house (Initial Crime Scene Investigation) and now explaining their is multiple murders happening to different families.

More pictures that the detectives are viewing on other families that have been murdered. Different ways of killing each victim, children getting killed by an injection. These suspects were clever, by dimming the light outside the front house. The kids were tucked in bed. The detectives think it is entertainment, by the suspects watching the victims die. No signal. One of the neighbours explaining that she saw the family and called on her cell phone to the police. There is nothing to connect the families that have been killed so they think the murderer’s killings are random.

You now see the two murderers in a restaurant, one of the men asks the other one if he see's anything he likes then it turns onto another family. One of the men is the ring leader and makes the quiet man pick somebody to kill.

Here you see him dim the light with a cloth so they don't have any thumb prints. He did the same thing with the cat.

Here you now see the two victims on the chair, where they watch their mother and father are brutally murdered. There keeps on being little more clues every time. In this episode, only the audience know who kills the victims but the audience doesn't know why yet.

One of the girls has survived with blood all over her hands. A man sees her and he calls 911. Here, there is now a witness. Different personalities of the two murderers. One of them is withdrawn, sensitive. Other is straight to the murderer, wants to kill for his own fun. The detectives are now visiting the Crime scene investigation of the girl’s house.

She is now in hospital, the girl and explaining to the detectives what happened, and explaining the different personalities of the two murderers. She tells them they tie them up. They make the two children watch their mother and father be killed. The nicer guy is telling her to be quiet and he helped her escape.

The murderers take things that are worth value.

You then see a quick scene of one of the murderers holding a picture of the girl who got away. It looks like he has relationship for each other. The detectives think they are some type of relatives to each other.

Here you see the gentler suspect at a vet hospital with cats. Now you know where they get the cats from.

The angry suspect then shouts at the weaker suspect for making her get away. The weaker suspect then says he doesn't want to kill the children.

The girl who survived, Kerrie just had a dream that they came to her hospital bed. The detectives realise there are flowers in there that was at the home. One of the suspects must have entered her hospital bed.

There is sign of abuse for one of the murderers, so now he is getting revenge by killing parents as he thinks all parents are the same.

They find who gave the flowers, and then they see a dead body in the house that was named after the person who ordered them. They have now police taped the house.

Kerrie that shows them who did it with pictures. Kerrie is now explaining she was horrible to her parents and now they have gone. She is upset, one of the detectives explain it may of been in hatred of what happened when they were younger.

The detectives see Auburn (the weaker killer) foster mother. She looks very weird as she doesn't let her foster son go in the fridge and wears a key around her house. Auburn was calling Kerrie Lucy when he took her out. The foster mother still looks very suspicious.

The police find Auburn, and hand cuff him.

They are doing the Interrogations, in the police station but Auburn isn't giving the detectives any information.

Kerrie is now going to talk to Auburn.

Auburns first reaction is Happy. 'Hey your here' he said he is sorry. They ask for Gary. (Other murderer) he thinks killing the children is better so they don't get hurt. What happens to you so bad?! Kerrie said.

Auburn is now talking about his childhood and how he got drowned by his stepmother and he always did. She is now holding his hand, 'this can't hurt you no more' and now Auburn is talking about how bad Gary’s was.

They found on Gary is going to the foster home. The talk is wrapped up.

Gary is at the school where the step children are. Gary is now giving the two children a lift. Detectives go to the school but they miss them.

They found him in the donut shop.

The girl comes up and tells her to give the police something. It says 'if you come in I will kill him'. The detective is now talking to the murderer. Explaining the children isn't what he needs. The child is now out of the donut store. It’s only Gary left. He is now out. With hands up, he has been nicked. Very bad attitude.

The kids now have to go back to the weird step mother.

Gary is now at the police station.

The kids are now back at their foster home. One of the detectives give one of the kids their phone number. There is another child staring out the window.

Gary is supposed to have a gun, they heard gun shooting in the house. One of the kids is shooting pictures and saying they are all lies. He drops the gun and hugs one of the detectives. All the detectives are now in the plane finished of their investigation. 

Actually wrote this on my phone, Proud! Homework.

Criminal Minds - Children of The Dark.

Start of the episode, a family at home doing their own stuff. What a normal family life is like. Mother is on the phone. The father (Tom) has to get the door after someone knocks on it.

A man is there, saying he found a cat dead on the floor. He asks to use their telephone so they let him use the phone... He asked for a bag for the cat then he asks for a bag for the dead cat. Then another man comes in who is called his friend who was 'shook up' the young boys just saw. Then, it turns to the detectives - who have pictures of the house (Initial Crime Scene Investigation) and now explaining their is multiple murders happening to different families.

More pictures that the detectives are viewing on other families that have been murdered. Different ways of killing each victim, children getting killed by an injection. These suspects were clever, by dimming the light outside the front house. The kids were tucked in bed. The detectives think it is entertainment, by the suspects watching the victims die. No signal. One of the neighbours explaining that she saw the family and called on her cell phone to the police. There is nothing to connect the families that have been killed so they think the murderer’s killings are random.

You now see the two murderers in a restaurant, one of the men asks the other one if he see's anything he likes then it turns onto another family. One of the men is the ring leader and makes the quiet man pick somebody to kill.

Here you see him dim the light with a cloth so they don't have any thumb prints. He did the same thing with the cat.

Here you now see the two victims on the chair, where they watch their mother and father are brutally murdered. There keeps on being little more clues every time. In this episode, only the audience know who kills the victims but the audience doesn't know why yet.

One of the girls has survived with blood all over her hands. A man sees her and he calls 911. Here, there is now a witness. Different personalities of the two murderers. One of them is withdrawn, sensitive. Other is straight to the murderer, wants to kill for his own fun. The detectives are now visiting the Crime scene investigation of the girl’s house.

She is now in hospital, the girl and explaining to the detectives what happened, and explaining the different personalities of the two murderers. She tells them they tie them up. They make the two children watch their mother and father be killed. The nicer guy is telling her to be quiet and he helped her escape.

The murderers take things that are worth value.

You then see a quick scene of one of the murderers holding a picture of the girl who got away. It looks like he has relationship for each other. The detectives think they are some type of relatives to each other.

Here you see the gentler suspect at a vet hospital with cats. Now you know where they get the cats from.

The angry suspect then shouts at the weaker suspect for making her get away. The weaker suspect then says he doesn't want to kill the children.

The girl who survived, Kerrie just had a dream that they came to her hospital bed. The detectives realise there are flowers in there that was at the home. One of the suspects must have entered her hospital bed.

There is sign of abuse for one of the murderers, so now he is getting revenge by killing parents as he thinks all parents are the same.

They find who gave the flowers, and then they see a dead body in the house that was named after the person who ordered them. They have now police taped the house.

Kerrie that shows them who did it with pictures. Kerrie is now explaining she was horrible to her parents and now they have gone. She is upset, one of the detectives explain it may of been in hatred of what happened when they were younger.

The detectives see Auburn (the weaker killer) foster mother. She looks very weird as she doesn't let her foster son go in the fridge and wears a key around her house. Auburn was calling Kerrie Lucy when he took her out. The foster mother still looks very suspicious.

The police find Auburn, and hand cuff him.

They are doing the Interrogations, in the police station but Auburn isn't giving the detectives any information.

Kerrie is now going to talk to Auburn.

Auburns first reaction is Happy. 'Hey your here' he said he is sorry. They ask for Gary. (Other murderer) he thinks killing the children is better so they don't get hurt. What happens to you so bad?! Kerrie said.

Auburn is now talking about his childhood and how he got drowned by his stepmother and he always did. She is now holding his hand, 'this can't hurt you no more' and now Auburn is talking about how bad Gary’s was.

They found on Gary is going to the foster home. The talk is wrapped up.

Gary is at the school where the step children are. Gary is now giving the two children a lift. Detectives go to the school but they miss them.

They found him in the donut shop.

The girl comes up and tells her to give the police something. It says 'if you come in I will kill him'. The detective is now talking to the murderer. Explaining the children isn't what he needs. The child is now out of the donut store. It’s only Gary left. He is now out. With hands up, he has been nicked. Very bad attitude.

The kids now have to go back to the weird step mother.

Gary is now at the police station.

The kids are now back at their foster home. One of the detectives give one of the kids their phone number. There is another child staring out the window.

Gary is supposed to have a gun, they heard gun shooting in the house. One of the kids is shooting pictures and saying they are all lies. He drops the gun and hugs one of the detectives. All the detectives are now in the plane finished of their investigation. 

Kidnap and Ransom Episode 2/3

Previously from the last episode as it is a 3 Part Series similar to Sherlock.

Firstly shown is the coach where all the Hostages are kept on with the suspect.
From each country both interacting. From England to India.

Dominic is an anti-hero. You still love him but he does break the law.
One of the suspects is English.

A scene is the laboratory. Dominic gets shown a dead body from under a white sheet. Streets full of guns shooting at the bus, photographers, news reporters.
The man keeping people hostages is now choosing people he has to kill from a range of all of their passports. This man is only killing them because he family will be killed otherwise.
A women just shouted, You leave her alone you p*ki bast*d. Showing racism.

The english suspect just shouts at Amwar and tells him to let her go, she about to shoot him but their wasn't any bullets in it. Dominic then appears from out of the bus. He enters the bus, Amwar then watches his fathers body being released on Dominics phone. It is showing Amwars family. His mother asked Dominic to give him his fathers ring. One of the victims hide a passport. She is a British foreign secretary's daughter. And if they find out who she is she will get killed straight away. iconography involved, guns, transport, places but it is in a whole new location; a different country. One of the victims gets released of the bus with Dominic as he needs heath treatment. One of the hostages daughter has came and visited Dominic and asked how can one person get of and not them. Survival of the fittest.
Dominic is back now on the bus, asking for the women and children. and saying who goes and who stays is his decision.
He finds out the women is the secretarys daughter then drives off, every one is now going crazy.

Set Pieces

1. What happens in the scene?
2. What part does it play in the narrative?
3. Iconography used
4. Audience Pleasures of the scene
5. Key Dialogue / Vocabulary

Interrogations:

1. Takes place in a police station, formal interview between the police officer and the suspect. Police or investigators stand outside listening in on the conversation.
2. This is what the investigators need to do, investigate the suspects or to give them leads to find out evidence of the crime.
3. Empty room, very dull and blunt. Tape recorder. A chair and a desk. Glass of water
4. This gives the audience a chance to receive clues in the crime investigation so they get a chance to participate so they can try and find the murderer before the detectives do.
5. "set up", "how was it like killling this person?" "where was you?" "what was you doing?" "who was you with?"

Initial Crime Scene Investigation:

1. Where the crime takes place. After that, the investigators arrive on the scene, usually asking questions to the witnesses or the officers who was their previously. First moment when they turn up and see that a type of crime has been commited.
2. Introduces the audience to the actual crime to tell us what has happend and what it is about.
3. Includes; police tape, victims dead body with white chalk, many detectives/ police officers/ reporters/ investigators.
4. This is when the audience watchs the crime and how it happened, this is what the whole episode is based on so people would want to keep a close eye on what actually happens and try and find the smallest clues if they want to beat the detectives in finding out who the murderer was.
5. "Brief me", "What we got here?"

The Chase:

1. This is when something happens that livens up the episode such as, police officers chasing the suspects.
2. Whether this person is the suspect or not, people will start thinking they are but sometimes it has a twist. Why the suspect is running away? And what has he actually done.
3. Dark alleys, Someone with hood up, Investigators with gun in hand, Cars going past, normally at night, Shooting
4. It gives us adrenaline, gives a break from just speaking and brings more action to the show. Gives us suspence, makes us want to watch it more.
5. "STOP!!!" "POLICE."

Informing Next of Kin:

1. When you tell the widow that you son has been killed, The upsetting part in the episode. The information of a loved one dying.
2. When they have found the body they go to their parents, or children. They could easily be known as suspects towards the murderer etc, in Luther, Alice is a daughter who kills her parents.
3. Based at a house, police office, tissues, water.
4. Audience can feel what they are feeling and have emotions towards the person who died.
5. "Im Sorry to Inform you but..." "I have some bad news"

The Confession:

1. This is when one of the suspects confesses about the murder, either if they are working with someone who killed them or they killed themselves.
2. When the investigation gets to out of hand for the criminal to handle, or something has made them confess; guilt.
3. Police office, interrigation room, Tape recorder.
4. This is when the audience finds out if they guessed right in who they thought the murderer was. Some people will get a guilty pleausure over this as they didn't even think that this person was the murderer so they could get some points from this.
5. "I did it" "I didn't mean to" "I know who did it" "It wasn't my fault :("

The Autopsy:

1. When they check the body over for clues on how they died and who did it, and they can recieve DNA.
2. Finding most of the clues in this scene as they find DNA and who it could be from, this gets the investigation started.
3. Body in the lab,  Montages
4. This is when the audience can get clues from who it was, they can feel upset towards this to.
5. "Look at this.." "Check for DNA"

The Eureka Moment:

1. When the investigators have a moment of intelligence as they realise something without any clues which then they could find out the crime from this information. Etc, such as someone killing themselves accidentally.
2. This makes excitement appear from the investigators as they have found something out themselves.
3. Normally at the crime scene, realise they're is something weird.
4. Audience get excited as this is a twist
5. "I've got something" "Listen to this"

The Laboratory:

1. This is where the evidence is gathered and where they test it using their machines. Finding blood, fibre's etc.
2. Helps the investigators shorten there investigation
3. Equipment, lab, white coats
4. Audience can start to guess who the murderer, how they did it and gives them a lot more information to work with
5. "sample" "Check this.." "Take a closer look"